Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Top 6 Political and Libertarian Quizzes

More and more I'm hearing from people who say things like "I always used to consider myself a conservative, but now I'm starting to wonder if I'm a libertarian," or "I am a recovering liberal who understands government is more often the problem than not- I'm starting to lean libertarian."

With the relentless acceleration of government growth and abuses, there is a deep and growing interest in libertarianism in America today. So I've compiled a list of six libertarian political quizzes I found on the Internet, along with my ratings and commentary:

This is perhaps the most popular and well-known libertarian political quiz on the Internet, a project of the libertarian Advocates for Self Government. Indeed, it's presently one of the top search results for "libertarian quiz" on Google. It is also self-billed as the "World's Smallest Political Quiz," clocking in at just ten short, simple statements that quiz-takers mark as "Agree," "Maybe," or "Disagree."

After filling out the survey, users will get the following result, which is where their political views fall on a Nolan Chart- a grid with two axes, one for the amount of government control over "personal issues" that is acceptable to the quiz-taker, and one for the amount of government control over "economic issues" that is acceptable to the quiz-taker:

The Nolan Chart Survey operates very similarly to the quiz above. Just ten questions then a graphic result displaying the quiz-taker's position on a Nolan Chart. The difference is that the questions are longer and a little more involved and nuanced than those on "The World's Smallest Political Quiz" above, and the website is not itself committed to libertarianism. Both of these differences could be considered either positive or negative things depending on what you're looking for in such a quiz.

This 64 question libertarian quiz is designed to rate how truly libertarian the quiz-taker actually is. The quiz maker seems to equate libertarianism with anarcho-capitalism. That could make this a better or worse libertarian quiz depending on your point of view.

This is a fun quiz, but not a very serious one. For example, one of the questions is: "Milton Friedman. Smart economist? Or smartest economist?" If you don't think he's the smartest (like say for instance, that you think Ludwig von Mises was smarter), then you get docked as less libertarian. But it is a fun quiz. I'll let the author's description speak for itself:

"Am I a libertarian? You ask yourself this question every day, I am sure. And until now there has been no way to find out if you are a libertarian. That's where this quiz comes in. The Ron Paul revolution lives on. Are you one of us?

This quiz tells if you are a libertarian, which is a political philosophy celebrating freedom, markets, capitalism, and personal responsibility. It'll weed out the dirty socialist thieves. Long live libertarianism!"

Another ten question libertarian quiz. The quiz-taker gets to choose from between five answers to each question, which span pretty well-representative gradations from extreme agreement to extreme disagreement with questions like "Free trade: Yes or no?" and do so in a humorous way and with a lot of personality.

What's your political philosophy? Take the "Ideology Selector" Quiz and find out. As the quiz states: "This selector tests for a number of specific contemporary ideologies in the United States, including 'neoconservative,' 'paleolibertarian,' 'Third Way,' etc."

What I really like about it is that it is pretty sophisticated, and what I mean by that is that you can express your agreement or disagreement with the question (or say you're unsure), and then you can express what level of priority you place on the issue and your agreement or disagreement with it.

This allows for a much more nuanced understanding of the quiz-taker's political views because you might agree with something, but not care very much about it or give much thought to it.

Wes, Do you believe that there can be any just wars? Or do you blame the U.S. and our soldiers for Terrorists attacking us on Sept. 11? I am just wondering because I have been debating a teen blogger who thinks she is a Libertarian but gives all the excuses in the world for the terrorists attacking us, so I am a little confused.

It amuses me that at least one quiz attempts to define "libertarian" as supporting Ron Paul. Funny thing that it fails to mention that Paul is a porker and not always libertarian on issues. Ron Paul does not define American libertarians and its foolish to suggest such a thing.

Thanks for taking our Quiz. I'm glad you found it easy and accurate. We find that the Quiz (especially used in conjunction with Operation Politically Homeless)is a great way to show people that just because they've always voted a certain way that their views might be more libertarian.

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